The Face

Financial inclusion also known as inclusive financing is meant to stimulate the delivery of financial services to all sectors of the disadvantaged and low-income segments of an economy at a convenient and affordable cost

Financial inclusion becomes relevant if all financial services, including credit, savings, payments and credit, from all types of formal financial institutions are made accessible to those we consider non-literate and not educated. It is being estimated that a total of 2 billion working-age adults globally do not have access to the types of formal financial services delivered by some regulated microfinance and formal financial institutions.

Most of the aforementioned do not have bank account not to talk of access to other means of financial transaction like, POS, ATM, fund transfers and internet banking.

The availability of range for financial services that meet the needs of the poor and active users without exemption is a key objective of financial inclusion in any given economy.

The facts

Financial inclusion is meant to be a blessing to the global populace but reverse is the case. Reasons are presented below;

• We talk of financial inclusion yet financial institutions demand for obnoxious collateral before having access to facility.
• We talk of financial inclusion yet microfinance institutions are bent on establishing their MFB’s in urban areas.
• We talk of financial inclusion yet micro loans of a hundred and less amount are gradually finding their way to extinction.
• We talk of financial inclusion yet targets given to staffs are outrageous making it difficult for them to reach out to the active poor.
• We talk of financial inclusion yet interest rate ceiling are not encouraged in other to curb the outrageous interest rates offered by some MFB’s.

Financial inclusion will work well if it gets to those that truly need to be included.